Aftermarket coolers for Palit GTX460 1gb?

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MaZa

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Hi. I upgraded to Palit GTX 460 1gb Sonic Edition lately, and part of me now wishes I should have chosen some other brand/model. Its cooler, while it manages to keep card cool enough for gaming, but only barely. The moment I saw the cooler I thought "they've got to be kidding me": A huge blob of finned amuminum, glorified big ramsink if you will. Should have chosen Sonic Platinum edition instead I guess, slap a new fan and TIM and some good copper heatsinks to VRM on that one and you are good to go.


Sorry for the intro. Back to the point. Is there any good aftermarket coolers that would fit this non-reference Palit card? I am quite stunned that while it uses same mounts as g92, none seems to fit. Not even my Musashi. Looking from the internets only two thermalrights (which are ridiculously huge and overkill) and some obscure Deepcool V4000 which availability is close to 0 (in europe too), are confirmed to fit without major butchering of the cooler or the card.


Is anyone in same situation as I am? Just a little upgrade in cooling power and less noise would be welcome, nothing major, is all I ask. Hell, perhaps I should buy someones old Sonic Platinum heatsink and mod that? :)
 
I just bought the same card. Lovin' the card, but I have to admit that the cooler is cheap trash. I've never installed an aftermarket GPU cooler before, so I don't have any great advice for you, but if you do figure something out (hopefully something cheap :D) I'd appreciate it if you updated this thread.
 
I've got the same card as the OPs and am looking for a good aftermarket cooler as well. The stock cooler is fairly poor.

However, I was able to reduce tempst by replacing the stock thermal compound with AS Ceramique which helped greatly.
 
Cool, thanks for the tip. I have some AS5 left over. Maybe I'll try it out this weekend.
 
AceGoober said:
I've got the same card as the OPs and am looking for a good aftermarket cooler as well. The stock cooler is fairly poor.

However, I was able to reduce tempst by replacing the stock thermal compound with AS Ceramique which helped greatly.
Click to expand...


I just ordered Q9550 processor and some Arctic Silver 5. I will try it on the GPU too.
 
What temps are you getting in games? If they are below 90C, then you're fine. GPUs are designed to tolerate more heat than CPUs.
 
jbz7890 said:
What temps are you getting in games? If they are below 90C, then you're fine. GPUs are designed to tolerate more heat than CPUs.
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Yes they are below 90C and I know it should be able to take it though I still consider it ridiculously high and even if it can take it there is no reason why it should go there. The heat is not the biggest problem, until I start overclocking this beast that is and which I aim going to do at some point, but also the noise. That high pitched whine is annoying whenever the fan ramps up every few minutes, very noticeable especially because rest of my computer is about dead silent. I already have one 92mm Scythe Kama Flex PWM fan coming but since I have to take a shroud off the VRM cooling suffers (which I aim to fix with heatsinks). But since the GPU heatsink is oldschool finned aluminum piece in design, I'm not really sure how to securely attach the new fan yet as cableties are out of the question.

Still, overall better heatsink is what I aim to get, for peace of mind and satisfy my customising need if nothing else


*edit* OCCT pushes my card to 91 after couple of minutes, so overclocking is definetly out of question with stock fan.
 
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Someone in this website mentioned that VF2000 should fit.
http://www.overclock.net/11506044-post4.html

Judging by the looks I googled it should fit just fine. Cant use custom fan unless I hack the fan away and stock fan is also 3-pin so no speed controlling other than what your mobo provides I guess. Unfortunately only one of my mobos 3pin fan sockets supports software speed controlling and it has already 3 scythes on it, I dont want to fry it anymore. VF2000 does come with fanmate2 to adjust fanspeeds though. But by design it looks like an excellent cooler compared to my stock Palit, I am getting quite curious...
 
the issue with the Palit (I have the OC edition) is that because its nonreference and smaller, most after market coolers wont' fit because the GPU is too close to the case. For exampl the HR03 will work great, if you don't mind chopping off about 1/4" of the fins.
 
H-street said:
the issue with the Palit (I have the OC edition) is that because its nonreference and smaller, most after market coolers wont' fit because the GPU is too close to the case. For exampl the HR03 will work great, if you don't mind chopping off about 1/4" of the fins.
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Yeah that is what I noticed. The card is so damn small. :) Actually HR-03 GT would have been on my to buy list because I also found out that it can be easily modded to fit Palit/Gainward GTX460, just shorten the fins near the heatpipe. Unfortunately that thing is sold out EVERYWHERE in Finland, and shops do not seem to be interested in carrying it anymore. :mad:


Anyway, curiosity got the better of me. I ordered VF2000 Led and see how it fits. I will post the results and try to take some pics too so stay tuned.
 
Well my Palit GTX 460 Sonic 1gb card LOOKS like it is running cool (62c reported by GPU-Z) but as I overclock and temps go up the card reverts to 2d clocks and won't come back. Need to reboot to get the speeds back up. So I been running the clocks lower for a bit.

Found a few posts about coolers, Arctic makes one called the extreme something, anyways I ordered their heatsink mounting kit and expect to install them in the next couple of days.

Also bought a temp probe to take a look at the temps. My theory is although the GPU is running nice and cool the VRM's are not. Hence the reason for installing the heatsinks.

I have been writing an article about comparing the Palit 1gb card with the EVGA 768 card on my website and plan to publish the results of these temps and my adding the heatsinks. If you are interested you can read it here:
http://www.ricklafay.com/Computers/EVGA%20GTX460/EVGA%20GTX%20460.htm
 
rick5127 said:
Well my Palit GTX 460 Sonic 1gb card LOOKS like it is running cool (62c reported by GPU-Z) but as I overclock and temps go up the card reverts to 2d clocks and won't come back. Need to reboot to get the speeds back up. So I been running the clocks lower for a bit.

Found a few posts about coolers, Arctic makes one called the extreme something, anyways I ordered their heatsink mounting kit and expect to install them in the next couple of days.

Also bought a temp probe to take a look at the temps. My theory is although the GPU is running nice and cool the VRM's are not. Hence the reason for installing the heatsinks.

I have been writing an article about comparing the Palit 1gb card with the EVGA 768 card on my website and plan to publish the results of these temps and my adding the heatsinks. If you are interested you can read it here:
http://www.ricklafay.com/Computers/EVGA%20GTX460/EVGA%20GTX%20460.htm
Click to expand...


Yes, VRMs run very hot from what I have read and thats why they have that shroud on stock cooler. It spreads the air on VRMs too that keeps them on stable levels, barely without sinks. With 3rd party coolers you should add good sinks on them. I have Enzotech MOS-C1 small VRM copper sinks coming, seen them used on water cooled non-reference GTX460 cards.

Though I lately realised they wont be enough as there are 10 in a package and it Palit card has 12 VRM chips. *facepalm*. Have to put some ram sinks on the rest which I have a pile of, like zalman rhs-1 or musashi and AC S1 left overs. What I loose in material quality I will probaply gain back with bigger cooling surface area.

I'll read the article later, I should be already sleeping!
 
Any luck? I, uh, had a moment and broke 2 fins off of my palit's cooling fan (damn, that thing's brittle!).

I've been desperately searching for an aftermarket alternative and have failed miserably. Those thermalright units are like $70 and I doubt they'd even fit. No way I'm spending that much on a card I only paid $160 for.
 
Yah I thought pretty much the same thing about a $70 cooler.

I bought some heat sinks for the VRM's. I also bought a non contact temp probe for looking around the card. Dropped the temps about 5c on the VRMs but they really weren't all that hot. Anyways wrote it all up in the article on my website.

FWIW
 
I still have it on back order. I dont know what is taking so damn long but if I dont get it next week I start looking from somewhere else. Dont worry, I havent forgotten this thread. Once I will get one I will post my results and take few pics.
 
So, from your experience, can you guys confirm that the GTX 460 uses different mounting holes from the G92?

I am interested in VGA cooling, and am trying to learn which mounting patterns are compatible with each other. I appreciate your discussion about this. :)
 
From what I could find with my temp probe, no cooler is really needed on the Palit 1gb card I have. I just added heatsinks to the vrms and that dropped them a bit. Still couldn't get the core much above 850 though so have left it there. I fold 24/7 on this thing and my gpu temp is 62 and under. VRM's are running about 5c cooler than stock.
 
XacTactX said:
So, from your experience, can you guys confirm that the GTX 460 uses different mounting holes from the G92?

I am interested in VGA cooling, and am trying to learn which mounting patterns are compatible with each other. I appreciate your discussion about this. :)
Click to expand...



Reference cards have different holes. There are already very good coolers for them. However, Palit/Gainward cards are nonreference, completely different construct. Mounting holes are same as G92 cards, but card itself is quite a bit smaller, so majority of old G92 coolers wont fit without modding either the cooler or card.
 
rick5127 said:
From what I could find with my temp probe, no cooler is really needed on the Palit 1gb card I have. I just added heatsinks to the vrms and that dropped them a bit. Still couldn't get the core much above 850 though so have left it there. I fold 24/7 on this thing and my gpu temp is 62 and under. VRM's are running about 5c cooler than stock.
Click to expand...



As I said, heat itself is not a problem but noise. I am a silent computer enthusiast as I also am an audiophile. I do not want too much noise. Yes yes I know the card is dead silent when idle (like listening music) but I still hate the the high pitched whine when gaming. I can hear it through my headphones.

Mine doesnt cool really well. On OCCT stress test temperature goes 90C with stock clocks.
 
Sorry missed the part about noise. Since I have lots of fans in mine I can't hear the card so can't comment on noise.

Surprised yours is running that hot. Mine did get up to 70C (I fold 24/7) but not since I added a fan blowing in on the card through the case wall. But I certainly never saw any 90C.

In any case all the testing and such that I did I wrote up and put it on my website. You can read my results and comments there. See my signature. FWIW
 
Nice... Jimms PC store had a mistake which listed the VF2000 as available in few days. They should have some coming but I dont know when. Looking around it is a same thing in every Finnish pc store, not in stock.

Great, just my luck. :mad:


No matter, if/when I get the cooler, I will post the results.
 
I don't know if this will help, but the stock twin fan setup on the giga-byte GTX460s (the OC edition) is very quiet, and even when overclocked is not bad. I don't know if you can buy that type of cooler, but it would be worth looking into.
 
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I doubt some reference cards cooler will fit without modding though I might be wrong.


Here is a list of so coolers that are confirmed to fit with Palit/Gainward nonreference GTX460 cards minus VF2000 which should be compatible too.

http://www.overclock.net/nvidia-cooling/827886-gtx-460-aftermarket-air-cooler-non.html

The list isnt very long thanks to the small size of the card AND the extra DVI port. Except for the Shaman (way too bulky) and Spitfire (too unconventional, will not work with my rig) they are hard to find. Sites that sell them are not in english so ordering is next to impossible to me.
 
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Yay! I got one now. I am off to install it. I'll be back after thorough testing.
 
Now I got it installed and tested. It was surprisingly frustrating. Thought it technically fits, you have to leave parts out. First, you cannot install ramsinks on the memory chips that are opposite from the PCIe slot as they are too close to the GPU chip and get in a way. But then again the cooler gets directly on top of them so they do not really need one, GDDR5 chips run quite cool anyway.

Also you cannot install the springs to the fixing nuts. GPU chip on Palit GTX460 is really hight, the nipple screws :)D) just barely reach through the holes! This got me scratching my head, even thinking that I just did an epic mistake when buying this cooler blind and thought it requires modding. Luckily this wasnt the case, do not attach the springs and screw the nuts tight directly against board, no need for washers either as Palit GTX460 has ones glued already.

Both GTX460 and VF2000 base are rectangle, thing is when attaching the cooler they go crossed. This is most likely not an issue as the rectangle thing is most likely just heatspreader and the actual chip is normal square under it and VF2000 sits on top of it at the center.




Now, actual results, two minutes on OCCT GPU test on 1280x1024 resolution.


Stock clocks, stock cooler:

IDLE 56C
LOAD 88C



Overclocked to the max that is error free on stock voltage and stock cooler. Meaning 795Mhz Core and 2000Mhz memory on my card.

LOAD 94C (HOOOOT!)



Zalman VF2000 and Zalmat STG2 thermal grease installed.

Lowest fan speed, stock clocks.

IDLE around 45C.
LOAD 66C. Quite an improvement.



Max fan speed, stock clocks

LOAD 56C. Incredible! Didnt bother with idle, who gives a damn anymore...



Low fan speed, overclocked to same as above.

LOAD 72C. Again a huge improvement.



Max fan speed, overclock

LOAD 60C.



So overall, I heartily recommend this to anyone who bought Palit GTX 460 Sonic Edition. Its stock cooler SUCKS! Sonic Platinum might go with better 92mm fan, but Sonic Edition gets a huge improvement over stock.

I also have screenshots to prove this, but Photobucket sucks as it shrinks them too small. Cant read the results. What is a good place to upload these pics?


Anyway, now I try to push this thing. Time to bump some volts.


*edit* Oh yeah, about the noise. On low fan speed this thing is practically inaudible inside the case. On max it is loud, though not even nearly as loud as stock cooler. Still, too loud for me so I doubt I ever use the max speed.


*edit2* BE SURE THAT YOUR VRM GET PROPER HEATSINKS! They get next to no airflow with this cooler. I pumper up the voltage to 1.087 and tried overclocking. Experienced my first black screen. GPU shut itself down propably because of overheating VRM. So I putted the voltage back to 1.000V and had a slight overclock. Started OCCT, ran it few ten seconds and tried the VRM sinks with my fingers. They are almost too hot to touch! I have 8 Enzotech copper heatsinks attached to the VRMs that are close together and 4 aluminum ram sinks on the separate ones. I dont know which ones are overheating, but both are very hot! Time to hunt better VRM sinks I guess.

*EDIT3* Ordered some Enzotech MOS-C10. Much like C1 which I had but bigger. And this two packages so I can cover all the VRMs properly and ditch the ramsinks I have on the rest. Well see what happens...
 
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